Open questions: Cumbria

Where sources disagree, MineArchive keeps both accounts rather than picking one; where a fact could not be settled, the record says so. 87 such claims on 55 records. All regions.

Ban Garth Mine

• S and J Lindow leased the Bangarth and Nab Gill ground in September 1845 and, before 1854, turned to opencast extraction at Bangarth, withdrawing in about 1856; Joseph Fearon tried again from 1860, abandoning in the late 1860s; Faithful Cookson sub-let to Whitehaven Iron Mines Ltd in 1871, which worked four levels and abandoned Bangarth in 1874. (disputed)
• The Lindow brothers worked the Eskdale mines from 1845 to 1853, mainly at an open quarry on the fell top behind Fisherground Farm, the Ban Garth Mine, raising a few thousand tons for little profit; Jos. Fearon held the lease in 1860-63, drove a new level below the opencast and raised a disappointing 1,000 tons. (disputed)

Barrow Mine

• Barrow mine first opened in the 17th century. (disputed)
• Mining ceased in 1889, when the Braithwaite Mining Company went into liquidation; the plant and machinery were sold on 2 January 1896. (disputed)
• Barrow mine closed in 1888. (disputed)

Blagill Mine

• The Buddlepit database's own summary states the mine was worked until 1905, while its narrative text states no production is recorded after 1895 -- the two statements disagree. (disputed)

Boaterby Mine

• John Messenger, a labourer of 50, was killed at Boaterby on 9 August 1879 by a fall of earth — six years before the quarry is recorded as going into production, which suggests work on the site began earlier than the 1885 date. (uncertain)
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Boaterby' (catalogue OM7192, Gypsum, dated 1921); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Borrowdale Colliery, Brough

• An undated Herald report describes a half-mile main level with horse-drawn tubs and eight men working by candlelight; the Old Cumbria Gazetteer, which quotes it, dates it only to the 1900s. (uncertain)

Brayton Domain Colliery

• The colliery village of Harriston at Aspatria was built to serve the mine and named after Joseph Harris, its owner. (uncertain)

Buckhill Colliery

• The Broughton Moor armaments depot opened on the colliery site in 1939 according to the depot article, or 1938 according to the halt article; it closed on 31 December 1992 and the spoil heap remains. (disputed)

Carrock Fell Mine

• A June 2012 report describes the group cutting their underground visit short after encountering bad air in the deepest workings, having explored adits featuring quartz veins and a horseshoe-shaped formation. (uncertain)

Cocklakes Mine

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Cocklakes' (catalogue OM15240, Gypsum And Anhydrite, dated 1966); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Coniston Copper Mines

• Some accounts suggest mining could date back to the Bronze Age, based on mortar stones resembling those from the prehistoric Great Orme copper mines in Wales, but no datable material evidence for activity this early is recorded at Coniston. (uncertain)
• A 2015 underground exploration report describes the deeper workings as an unstable, gradually collapsing environment, with sections of hanging rail line and old wooden "false floors" concealing drops — consistent with the site's general reputation for genuinely hazardous underground conditions away from the surface trails. (uncertain)

Cove Quarries, Coniston

• The Coniston Local History Society reported in 2010 having received a family account of operations at Cove from about 1855 to the middle of the twentieth century. (uncertain)

Crossfield Mine

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a BGS plan titled 'Crossfield;' (catalogue SP2340, undated in the catalogue); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Dale Head Copper Mine

• The mine is thought to have been worked in about 1700 by one Thomas Robinson. (uncertain)

Dowgang Mine

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Dowgang' (catalogue OMR46C, Lead Ore, undated in the catalogue); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Dry Gill Mine

• Eastwood's account of 1921 gives galena as the main ore worked, against later work finding galena scarce in the levels the workings exposed. (disputed)
• The working life ran to 1871, the last year under the Caldbeck Fells Consols Company. (disputed)

Dubs Quarry

• The published history of Honister gives 1932 as the year Dubbs Quarry ceased production, largely because of the difficulties and slowness of transporting finished slate. (disputed)
• The Durham Mining Museum's transcription of the 1929 List of Mines records against Dubs that it had not been worked since 1927. (disputed)

Duke Pit

• A new shaft was sunk from the surface to the Six-Quarter seam in 1819 by John Peile. (disputed)
• The old shaft was deepened and a new one sunk, both to the Six Quarters seam, in 1820. (disputed)

Eagle Crag Mine

• The Watson brothers of Deepdale are said to have found and then lost a silver-bearing vein on St Sunday Crag, known since as Watson's Loss. (uncertain)

Elterwater Quarry

• Part of the quarry's underground workings has been proposed for redevelopment as a heritage tourist attraction, a plan that has met public objection locally. (uncertain)

Flimby Colliery

• The Rattler seam was abandoned as unworkable on account of faults. The colliery record dates this 17 February 1898; the catalogue of abandonment plans dates the abandonment of Robin Hood No. 2 in the Rattler to December 1897. (uncertain)

Force Crag Mine

• Documentary sources record small-scale surface extraction of lead at Force Crag as early as 1578, well before the main 19th- and 20th-century underground workings. (uncertain)
• A March 2020 permission-visit report, made with a National Trust ranger, describes ongoing vandalism at the locked mine buildings, including a break-in using a battery-powered grinder, despite no materials of value remaining on site. (uncertain)

Frizington Iron Mines

• A working known as Frizington Mine (or Frizington No.1/Frizington Parks Mine, Pit No.1) was worked for iron ore from 1865 to 1880 under Musgrave & Co (1865-70), Gibson, Cook & Musgrave (from 1875) and the Frizington Coal Co (from 1880); it is uncertain whether this was ever a single formally distinct mine or a name loosely applied to whichever workings the Frizington Mining/Coal Companies held. (uncertain)

Gill Force Mine

• Postlethwaite records a considerable quantity of ore raised at the South Cumberland Mine, opposite Nab Gill on the course of its vein, and implies it was working before the railway opened in 1875. (disputed)
• A plan of the South Cumberland Iron Company's workings on Eskdale Moor, dated June 1882, carries William Donaldson's name. (uncertain)

Gillfoot Park Mine

• Working is recorded as having ended in 1915, but the ownership record for the Wyndham Mining Company Ltd runs from 1901 to 1918. The two dates disagree. (disputed)

Greenside Mine

• Some accounts place mining at Greenside as early as 1690, but no documentary evidence for a working this early has been produced; the earliest confirmed reference is a legal brief from 1799. (uncertain)

Haig Colliery

• A further explosion on 12 February 1928 killed 13 men at Haig Colliery. (uncertain)

Hardshins Lead Mine

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Hardshins' (catalogue OM2525, Lead Ore, dated 1890); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Hartside Mine

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a BGS plan titled 'Hartside Mines' (catalogue SP2080, undated in the catalogue); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Hartsop Hall Mine

• Considerable quantities of lead ore were raised from excavations above and between the adit levels. (disputed)
• Four levels were driven into the fellside but the production of ore was never significant. (disputed)
• The ore carried about 35 ounces of silver per ton of lead. (disputed)
• The lead yielded up to 30 ounces of silver per tonne. (disputed)

Holyfield Mine

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Holyfield' (catalogue OM15115, Lead Ore, dated 1872); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Honister Slate Mine

• The mine closed in the 1980s under Alfred McAlpine ownership after a protracted decline; sources give the year as both 1986 and 1989. (disputed)

Kells Pit, Whitehaven

• The Heslop engine at Kells was erected in 1793. (disputed)

Ladysmith Pit

• A newspaper history of the Whitehaven pits dates the sinking of Ladysmith Pit to 1900. (disputed)
• A list of Whitehaven pits with approximate dates gives 1898 for Ladysmith Pit. (disputed)
• A coal washery at Ladysmith, Kells, was washing Haig Colliery coal in 1971. (uncertain)

Long Meg Mine

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Long Meg' (catalogue OM6294, Gypsum Or Alabaster, dated 1914); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Longcleugh Mine

• A 2012 discussion among mine explorers at Nenthead reported that Minco plc was drilling to prove ore reserves around the village, with the geology said to suggest substantial high-grade ore 400 to 500 metres below the existing workings and results not expected before 2014 or 2015. (uncertain)

Loughrigg Fell Slate Quarry

• Rydal Cave, on the northern slopes of Loughrigg Fell above Rydal Water, is a former slate mine — originally Loughrigg Quarry — abandoned in the 19th century and now a large chamber with a flooded floor. (uncertain)

Lowca Colliery

• The Durham Mining Museum gives 1910 as the year Harrington Colliery opened, against 1908 for the sinking of No. 10 Pit. (disputed)

Moresby Colliery

• The Walkmill pit was sunk and raising coal by the end of 1878, and is the pit known both as Moresby Colliery and as Walkmill Colliery. The archaeological assessment dates the sinking to 1879, following Oliver Wood’s history of the West Cumberland industry. (disputed)
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Moresby' (catalogue NC177, Bannock, China & Main, Six Quarters, undated in the catalogue); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Myers Head Mine

• The mine was worked for lead between 1867 and 1870 and proved a commercial failure. (disputed)
• The Patterdale Mining Company began sinking the shaft about 1870; in the late 1870s the miners broke into a large cavity, the shaft flooded and the mine was abandoned after less than ten years. (disputed)

Nab Gill Mine

• By 1842 ore from Nab Gill mine at Boot was being shipped from Ravenglass to South Wales. (disputed)
• The Geological Survey says the mine was first opened as the 'Whitehaven (or Eskdale and Miterdale) Iron Mine' about 1870. (disputed)
• The mines closed down in 1882, but reopened later. (disputed)
• Bristol consortia leased the mine from the receiver until about 1883, and a few miners and the railway manager worked it on a small scale to about 1885. (disputed)
• The 20th-century reopening is dated 1909 (National Trust HER, as cited) rather than 1907. (uncertain)

Nent Force Level

• Wallace, writing in 1890, records that the proposal to drive underground canals may have come from John Gilbert, of Bridgewater Canal fame, who was a shareholder in mines on Middle Fell; the memoir judges that Walton probably had more direct influence on the work here than the named engineer. (disputed)

Nenthead Mines

• Modern mineral exploration, including boreholes drilled to around 1,640 ft in 2013, has identified potentially substantial untapped zinc deposits roughly 490 ft below the surface at Nenthead, though no new mining has resulted. (uncertain)
• A May 2009 report describes pony hoofprints and hobnail bootprints still visible in taped-off ground at Smallcleugh, an 1795 carving in the stonework, and tools left underground at Nenthead “almost as though the miners had left the day before.” (uncertain)

Nentsbury Mine

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a BGS plan titled 'Nentsbury Mine' (catalogue CT158, dated 1956); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Park Mines

• Schneider's trial pit struck the Park deposit close to Park Farm in October 1850, at a cost of about £50. (disputed)
• The Park deposit was opened in about 1851. (disputed)
• The 500 men employed at Park Mines were given notice in March 1921, and the mine closed in 1921. (disputed)
• Park mine closed in 1922. (disputed)
• Park Sop measured about 450 m by 240 m and is thought to have yielded between 12 and 17 million tonnes of high-quality ore. (uncertain)
• The Burlington deposit crossed the boundary between Park and Roanhead. (uncertain)

Potts Ghyll Mine

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Potts Ghyll' (catalogue OM15238, Unknown, undated in the catalogue); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Roachburn Colliery

• Roachburn Colliery opened in 1895. (disputed)
• The colliery had been established fifteen years by January 1908, which places its opening in 1893. (disputed)

Silverband Mine

• The mine closed in 1964 according to the Archaeology Data Service and in 1963 according to the Buddlepit database. (disputed)

Smallcleugh Mine

• A 2012 discussion among mine explorers at Nenthead reported that Minco plc was drilling to prove ore reserves around the village, with the geology said to suggest substantial high-grade ore 400 to 500 metres below the existing workings and results not expected before 2014 or 2015. (uncertain)

Solway Colliery

• A photograph caption says Solway Colliery closed in March 1973. (disputed)

Tarnhouse Colliery

• A railway of five and a half miles was made in 1775 from the Earl of Carlisle's colliery at Tindale Fell to Brampton. (disputed)

Threlkeld Quarry and Mine

• A March 2020 permission-visit report describes a steam-powered Ruston Bucyrus excavator surviving in deteriorating condition among the museum's collection, alongside restoration work by Lakeland Mines and Quarries Trust volunteers since 1992 to repair buildings and clear old plant foundations. (uncertain)

Troutbeck Park Green Slate Works

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Troutbeck' (catalogue OMR274C, Lead Ore, undated in the catalogue); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Wellington Pit

• An explosion on 11 May 1910 in the No. 3 North District killed 136 men and boys — the figure given by the official adjourned inquest. (disputed)
• The death toll is given elsewhere as 147. (disputed)

Workington Colliery

• An explosion of firedamp at the Isabella Pit on 21 September 1833 killed thirteen, among them three Brennan brothers, the youngest aged fourteen. (uncertain)
• The colliery worked through the Buddle, Isabella and Jane pits, with the Union and Lady pits also named among those lost in 1837. (uncertain)
• The colliery belonged to Mr Curwen at the time of the 1837 inundation and is recorded under Irving & Co. in the 1860s. (uncertain)

Wythburn Mine

• Only a few hundred tons of galena came out of the mine, probably insufficient to cover its costs. (disputed)
• The mine was a profitable one when Manchester Corporation closed it. (disputed)